Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 06/26/2025 were filed after the mailing date of the non-final rejection on 08/20/2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ith et al (US 20220311950 A1, hereinafter, "Ith").
Regarding Claim 1, Ith teaches an imaging apparatus, comprising: a processor; and a memory storing a program which, when executed by the processor, causes the imaging apparatus to execute reception processing in which annotation information related to an image is received (Ith, Fig. 2A, [0030], ln. 1-3, "…FIG. 2A shows a graphical interface for placing an annotation in a first position in a three-dimensional virtual space 216 overlayed on a live view 212 displayed by a display of a computing device 200 in accordance with an example embodiment."), execute first display control processing in which a live view image is displayed on a display unit, execute second display control processing in which the annotation information received by the reception processing is associated with the live view image and displayed on the display unit (Ith, Fig. 2A, [0030], ln. 1-3, "…FIG. 2A shows a graphical interface for placing an annotation in a first position in a three-dimensional virtual space 216 overlayed on a live view 212 displayed by a display of a computing device 200 in accordance with an example embodiment."), execute imaging processing in which a captured image is generated (Ith, Fig. 1, [0025], ln. 5-9, "Display 108 displays, in real time, the detected images as a live view 112 [also referred to as a “live preview”] of the environment or scene detected by camera(s) 106. As used herein, “live view” is the current view of an environment presented to the user via display 108 as perceived by camera[s] 106 and imaging system 110. One or more GUI elements may be overlayed on live view 112 presented via display 108 that enable the user to take a picture, record a video, initiate a video call, etc."), execute input processing in which a selection operation for selecting the annotation information displayed on the display unit is accepted (Ith, Fig. 2A, [0030], ln. 1-3, "…FIG. 2A shows a graphical interface for placing an annotation in a first position in a three-dimensional virtual space 216 overlayed on a live view 212 displayed by a display of a computing device 200 in accordance with an example embodiment."), and execute data generation processing in which annotation data, in which the annotation information selected by the selection operation and the captured image generated by imaging processing are associated, is generated (Ith, Fig. 2A, [0030], ln. 1-3, "…FIG. 2A shows a graphical interface for placing an annotation in a first position in a three-dimensional virtual space 216 overlayed on a live view 212 displayed by a display of a computing device 200 in accordance with an example embodiment.").
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ith in view of Li et al (JP 7195085 B2, hereinafter, "Li").
Regarding Claim 2, Ith teaches the limitations of dependent Claim 1 as noted above. Li teaches the program, when executed by the processor, further causes the imaging apparatus to execute specifying processing in which a subject photographed in the live view image is specified, and wherein in the second display control processing, a plurality of pieces of the annotation information are sorted in descending order of relevance to the subject specified by the specifying processing and displayed on the display unit (Li, Fig. 10b, pg. 13, para. 1, ln. 2-5, "In step S3, since the images are ranked for annotation, they are displayed on the reproduction unit 23 in descending order of priority, as shown in FIG. 10[b]. The operator of the external device 20, while viewing the image displayed on the reproduction unit 23, operates the designation operation unit 24 to designate a specific portion of the object…"). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to combine the teachings of Li with those of Ith because it is widely known in the art to annotate images and sort them in order of descending priority.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ith in view of Li and Jeong (US 20230237821 A1, hereinafter, "Jeong").
Regarding Claim 3, Ith and Li teach the limitations of dependent Claim 2 as noted above. Jeong teaches in the specifying processing, the subject photographed in the live view image is specified on the basis of an estimation result of the subject by using a trained model obtained by training a learning model, which estimates the subject photographed in the live view image by using training data that includes input images and correct answer data, which is information of the subject in the input images (Jeong, Fig. 1, [0072], ln. 1-5, "…by practically applying the trained and validated recognition model to robot-based control [second stage], for example, the trained and validated recognition model is used as a recognition model [self-supervised learning-based grasp estimation model] for manipulation, 3D object recognition may be performed on the input image data, and robot-based control may be performed based on the 3D object recognition."). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to combine the teachings of Jeong with those of Ith and Li because it is widely known in the art to use self-supervised learning for estimation and object recognition.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ith in view of Maussion et al (WO 2024118842 A1, hereinafter, "Maussion") and Miyamoto (WO 2024096039 A1, hereinafter, "Miyamoto").
Regarding Claim 4, Ith teaches the limitations of dependent Claim 1 as noted above. Maussion teaches the annotation information includes feature information regarding features of the subject photographed in the live view image and imaging conditions (Maussion, [0059], ln. 8-11, "Exemplary global annotations include a label identifying the image as a whole, data regarding how the image was acquired, a label identifying a feature of the subject from whom the image is derived, e.g., a label indicating the age, sex, diagnosis, etc. of the subject from whom the image is derived, and/or any other data applying to the image as a whole."). Maussion does not teach in the second display control processing, the imaging conditions are displayed together with the feature information on the display unit. However, Miyamoto teaches in the second display control processing, the imaging conditions are displayed together with the feature information on the display unit (Miyamoto, Fig. 1,pg. 4, para. 4, ln. 1-4, "The display control unit 107 can display, for example, patient information on the patient who is the subject O, imaging conditions, parameters set by the operator, generated optical images and radiation images, annotation information, segmentation information, and the like on the display unit 135."). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to combine the teachings of Maussion and Miyamoto with those of Ith because it is widely known in the art to label subject features with annotations and display annotation information with generated optical images.
Claims 5-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ith in view of Miyamoto.
Regarding Claim 5, Ith teaches the limitations of dependent Claim 1 as noted above. Ith teaches the imaging apparatus according to claim 1 (Reasons for rejection are the same as Claim 1). Ith does not teach a management apparatus configured to receive the annotation data from the imaging apparatus. However, Miyamoto teaches a management apparatus configured to receive the annotation data from the imaging apparatus .(Miyamoto, Fig. 1,pg. 4, para. 4, ln. 1-4, "The display control unit 107 can display, for example, patient information on the patient who is the subject O, imaging conditions, parameters set by the operator, generated optical images and radiation images, annotation information, segmentation information, and the like on the display unit 135."). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to combine the teachings of Ith and Miyamoto with those of Ith because it is widely known in the art to use a display control unit to receive annotation data from an imaging apparatus.
Regarding Claim 6, Ith teaches A method for controlling an imaging apparatus, the method comprising: a reception step of receiving annotation information related to an image (Ith, Fig. 2A, [0030], ln. 1-3, "…FIG. 2A shows a graphical interface for placing an annotation in a first position in a three-dimensional virtual space 216 overlayed on a live view 212 displayed by a display of a computing device 200 in accordance with an example embodiment."); a display step of displaying a live view image on a display unit (Ith, Fig. 2A, [0030], ln. 1-3, "…FIG. 2A shows a graphical interface for placing an annotation in a first position in a three-dimensional virtual space 216 overlayed on a live view 212 displayed by a display of a computing device 200 in accordance with an example embodiment."); a step of accepting a selection operation for selecting the annotation information displayed on the display unit (Ith, Fig. 2A, [0030], ln. 1-3, "…FIG. 2A shows a graphical interface for placing an annotation in a first position in a three-dimensional virtual space 216 overlayed on a live view 212 displayed by a display of a computing device 200 in accordance with an example embodiment."); and a data generation step of generating annotation data, in which the annotation information selected by the selection operation and the captured image generated in the imaging step are associated (Ith, Fig. 2A, [0030], ln. 1-3, "…FIG. 2A shows a graphical interface for placing an annotation in a first position in a three-dimensional virtual space 216 overlayed on a live view 212 displayed by a display of a computing device 200 in accordance with an example embodiment."). Ith does not teach a display control step of associating the annotation information received in the reception step with the live view image so as to be displayed on the display unit; an imaging step of generating a captured image. However, Miyamoto teaches a display control step of associating the annotation information received in the reception step with the live view image so as to be displayed on the display unit (Miyamoto, Fig. 1,pg. 4, para. 4, ln. 1-4, "The display control unit 107 can display, for example, patient information on the patient who is the subject O, imaging conditions, parameters set by the operator, generated optical images and radiation images, annotation information, segmentation information, and the like on the display unit 135."); an imaging step of generating a captured image (Miyamoto, Fig. 1,pg. 4, para. 4, ln. 1-4, "The display control unit 107 can display, for example, patient information on the patient who is the subject O, imaging conditions, parameters set by the operator, generated optical images and radiation images, annotation information, segmentation information, and the like on the display unit 135."). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to combine the teachings of Miyamoto with those of Ith because it is widely known in the art to combine a display control which generates a captured image with a live image displayed with annotations.
Regarding Claim 7, Ith teaches A non-transitory computer readable medium that stores a program, wherein the program causes a computer to execute a control method of an imaging apparatus, the control method comprising: a reception step of receiving annotation information related to an image (Ith, Fig. 2A, [0030], ln. 1-3, "…FIG. 2A shows a graphical interface for placing an annotation in a first position in a three-dimensional virtual space 216 overlayed on a live view 212 displayed by a display of a computing device 200 in accordance with an example embodiment."); a display step of displaying a live view image on a display unit (Ith, Fig. 2A, [0030], ln. 1-3, "…FIG. 2A shows a graphical interface for placing an annotation in a first position in a three-dimensional virtual space 216 overlayed on a live view 212 displayed by a display of a computing device 200 in accordance with an example embodiment."); a step of accepting a selection operation for selecting the annotation information displayed on the display unit (Ith, Fig. 2A, [0030], ln. 1-3, "…FIG. 2A shows a graphical interface for placing an annotation in a first position in a three-dimensional virtual space 216 overlayed on a live view 212 displayed by a display of a computing device 200 in accordance with an example embodiment."); and a data generation step of generating annotation data, in which the annotation information selected by the selection operation and the captured image generated in the imaging step are associated (Ith, Fig. 2A, [0030], ln. 1-3, "…FIG. 2A shows a graphical interface for placing an annotation in a first position in a three-dimensional virtual space 216 overlayed on a live view 212 displayed by a display of a computing device 200 in accordance with an example embodiment."). Ith does not teach a display control step of associating the annotation information received in the reception step with the live view image so as to be displayed on the display unit; an imaging step of generating a captured image. However, Miyamoto teaches a display control step of associating the annotation information received in the reception step with the live view image so as to be displayed on the display unit (Miyamoto, Fig. 1,pg. 4, para. 4, ln. 1-4, "The display control unit 107 can display, for example, patient information on the patient who is the subject O, imaging conditions, parameters set by the operator, generated optical images and radiation images, annotation information, segmentation information, and the like on the display unit 135."); an imaging step of generating a captured image (Miyamoto, Fig. 1,pg. 4, para. 4, ln. 1-4, "The display control unit 107 can display, for example, patient information on the patient who is the subject O, imaging conditions, parameters set by the operator, generated optical images and radiation images, annotation information, segmentation information, and the like on the display unit 135."). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to combine the teachings of Miyamoto with those of Ith because it is widely known in the art to combine a display control which generates a captured image with a live image displayed with annotations.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEVEN DANIEL BARRY whose telephone number is (571)270-0432. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 0730-1630.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Lin Ye can be reached on 517-272-7372. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/STEVEN DANIEL BARRY/Examiner, Art Unit 2638
/LIN YE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2638
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